Ol Yell'er

An iconic image of the American heartland

Ol Yell’er features a vintage tractor pedal car, a lovely memento of a time when farm kids pretended to till the fields like dad and city kids dreamed of the country.

Much of my body of work features tongue-in-cheek humour or zany contraptions, but Ol Yell’er is different. This Western Flyer tractor toy, with all its well-earned scratches and dings, wasn’t part of a story, it was the story - all by itself.

I surrounded the tractor with natural wood, as if the toy was parked in a shed or workshop. I built the backdrop from pallets that I pulled apart, making sure to have the imperfections from use show in the scene.

The tractor rests on an antique box, the kind found in every shed decades ago. I am particular about the boxes that I use in my work - a box has to be very special for me to take up valuable canvas space to depict it. Here, I’ve included the box as a metaphor for the way we adults put away our sense play and adventure as we age (though we probably shouldn’t).

Other details

This model of tractor pedal car was manufactured between the 1940s and the 1970s. I found this one at an antique fair in Canton, Texas and had to have it. (Though it would have been better had I found it at the end of my shopping trip, because it weighs a ton.)

When I was a kid in England, I didn’t have a pedal tractor; instead, I had to make do with an orange crate with baby buggy wheels. People at art shows who see this print tell me similar stories - either they had a toy like this as a child or they didn’t have one, wanted one desperately, and still remember the name of the neighbor who did have one! I hear the latter part of that tale from women especially who wanted the toy tractor to tootle around in, but were given dolls instead.

All Richard Hall prints are limited edition and hand-signed and numbered by the artist.

All of our prints are finished with a coating that protects the print and enhances light-fastness; we use the highest quality pigmented inks with an estimated lifetime of 118 years.

Canvas giclées: Edition of 50 (for all sizes), signed and numbered on the back of the piece. Archivally mounted or stretched and hand-coated with protectant. Framed canvas giclées are hand-framed in our studio with an espresso-colored frame with gold-tone lip. Unframed canvas giclées should not be framed with glass.

Paper giclées: Edition of 250 for 12” x 16” sizes; edition of 125 for 18” x 24”. Printed on high-quality, acid-free paper and comes with a hand-cut mat that fits into a standard-size frame. We recommend that you use a frame with glass to ensure longevity of your paper print.

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About

For 35 years, Richard Hall enjoyed a successful career in fine art, using his talents to explore the opposing worlds of abstract art and traditional still life. But chance intervened when a mischievous toddler added her two-cents worth to one of Richard’s still life settings, prompting Richard to see his work in an entirely new way. READ MORE

All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. The use of products in artwork by Richard Hall Fine Art is for creative and artistic purposes. The trademark holders are not affiliated with the maker of this product and have not endorsed, sponsored, authorized or licensed this product.
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